Improvement in heel plates or guards



T. E. LEWIS. HeeLPlate or Guard,

No. 217,624. Patented July 15, I879.

TO-LITHOGHAFNEH, WASHINGTON D. C.

MPETERS. PHD

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS E. LEWIS, OF VIOKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI.

IMPROVEMENT IN HEEL PLATES OR GUARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 217,624, dated July 15, 1879 application filed June 6, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS E. LEWIS, of Vicksburg, county of Warren, State of Mississippi, have invented an Improved Heel Plate or Guard, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in heel plates or guards for heels of boots and shoes, and consists in a heel-shaped plate provided with holes to receive screws, whereby the said plate may be attached to the end of the heel, and with a right-angled heel-breast projection to extend vertically across the heelbreast, thereby protecting the heel-breast substantially for its whole length, preventing the leather of the heel wearing or its layers getting out of shape or position by the movement or strain of one lift upon another, and preventing the plate rattling, as the heads of its holding-screws become worn.

Figure 1 represents in bottom view one of my improved heel-plates; Fig. 2 represents that end of the said plate which is applied to the breast of the heel, and Fig. 3 is a section thereof on the line 90 av, Fig. 1.

The heel a may be of any usual shape and material.

The heel-plate is composed of a bottom plate, I), shaped as shown between the points 2 3 4, and made straight between the points 2 4, and of a heel-breast guard, 0, long enough to extend from the front of the top lift at the breast up along and over the breast, substantially to the sole.

The portion b has screw-holes to receive screws (3 e e, which are inserted vertically into the heel, as shown in the drawings, and the part c has a screw-hole to receive a screw, f, if desired.

By extending this portion 0 upward across the heel-breast a very small and slight heel, either of regular or of ogee shape, may be so strengthened as not to be knocked off by a blow against the heel-breast, as when walking, and the bottom plate prevents the top lift becoming worn or thrown out of shape.

I am aware that it is not new to put a wearplate upon the end of a heel, and so also I am aware that ice-creepers have been provided with prongs and horizontally-arranged screws to be temporarily fastened upon the end of a heel; but they are unserviceable for the purpose for which this invention is designed.

In ordinary plates as the screws 0 become worn the plate fits loose and rattles; but a plate having the upwardly-extended portion will be so firmly held that it can not get loose and rattle.

I claim- As an improved article of manufacture, a heel-finishing or wear plate, composed of a flat heel-shaped plate provided with holes to permit screws to be inserted into the heel from its top-lift end, and with a vertical or rightangled projection to extend across, protect, and be secured permanently to, the breast of the heel, all as shown and described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOS. E. LEWIS.

Witnesses:

JOHN P. COLEMAN, EUGENE PLATT. 

